You may only read this site if you've purchased Our Kampf from Amazon or Powell's or me• • •"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show• "Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket•"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming

September 16, 2008

Greg Mankiw Is Funny!

Greg Mankiw is an ultra-fancy economics professor at Harvard who teaches a famous introductory class there. Here's what he wrote on his blog yesterday:

Today is the first day of Harvard's academic year, and the first day of a new year of ec 10. I will give the introductory lecture at noon.

I would like to thank all my friends on Wall Street for doing so much to spark interest in economic issues. You have gone beyond the call of duty, and your timing could not have been better.

Ha ha ha! That's quite droll!

But here's what Professor Mankiw is too funny to mention: he was Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2003-2005, during some of the prime years of the housing bubble's inflation. Thus there are probably fewer than five people on earth who had more power to get things under control. Yet not only did Mankiw do nothing whatsoever, when I interviewed him for an article in 2005 (after he left the White House and returned to Harvard), he become extremely agitated at the notion that a housing bubble even existed.

Hence, he should get a large, large chunk of the credit for managing to "spark interest in economic issues." I guess he's just too modest to bring it up!

ALSO: I'm going to go out on a limb and guess there's a connection between Mankiw's White House performance on the housing bubble and the impressive number of "friends on Wall Street" he possesses.

Rumor has it that Harvard College, once aka Kremlin on the Charles, will merge with the Harvard Business School and the new entity will become Goldman Sachs-The Boston Campus.
By the way, who are "the oppressed" you bring up often? Is Norman Solomon oppressed? Dennis Perrin? Bernard Chazelle? Who's oppressing them?
Can you name three (3) oppressed persons? If you can, I want it stopped immediately.
Gets harder by the day to take anything seriously.
Might as well enjoy the ride down the dark side of the mountain.

Speak of what you know, or you will know not of what you speak. Mankiw is center-left in orientation and replaced uber-conservative policy icon Martin Feldstein as the professor of Harvard's introductory economics course. I had both professors for advanced economics courses at Harvard. Each was balanced, lucid, funny, engaging, and presented the partisanship within their arguments in a way that was not at all deceptive or seductive. Mankiw often found himself at odds with neocon orthodoxy while working in the administration, while Feldstein decried the deficit spending of the Bush years. Enough partisan jeering, these are both smart guys who, in their own words, could work out an economic policy that each would be 95% happy with in about an hour if the finished product didn't have to get through congress.

Posted by: Harvard Liberal at September 16, 2008 11:56 PM

I think our Harvard Liberal is center-right.

Posted by: Harvard Reactionary at September 17, 2008 10:20 AM

With all due respect, Harvard Liberal, but you have no idea what you're talking about. Mankiw is "center-left in orientation"? Have you read his blog?

Posted by: Peter H at September 17, 2008 03:26 PM

Stop being partisan and congratulate people for doing the wrong things.

Dear Citizen:
Are you ready yet for the November 4th Elections? How about your friends, family, and neighbors?
More Americans are expected to vote this year than ever before in history, so don’t be left out! Be sure to ask everyone you know the following questions:
 Are you registered to vote? If you moved recently, have you updated your voter registration?
 Did you apply for an Absentee Ballot? Do you know your state may not require any reason?
 Can you find your local Polling Place? Do you know it may have changed from last time?
The answers to these questions -- and all your voting needs -- can be found at www.StateDemocracy.org -- the FREE 1-Stop citizen empowerment portal that Delivers Democracy to your Desktop! StateDemocracy is among the Internet’s first (since 2001) and most encompassing civic empowerment tools.
In order to boost voter participation this year, StateDemocracy.org is offering FREE widgets for all 50 states. You can simply download and embed these widgets into your own website so your visitors can register to vote, get an absentee ballot or find their local polling place.
Lobby Congress Via StateDemocracy
StateDemocracy.org also equips you to maintain an active dialog with your state and federal lawmakers once they are elected. And RIGHT NOW is an especially opportune time to contact your U.S. Senators and House Member, as Congress takes up major legislation on such issues as offshore oil drilling, another economic stimulus package and all federal appropriations bills over the next few weeks.
As you lobby your elected officials, remember that lawmakers view your constituent input as reflective of scores of other citizens who felt similarly, but didn’t have (or take) the time to share their opinions.
LobbyDelegates.com Further Empowered Grassroots Voices
Over the past 5 months, you may have visited www.LobbyDelegates.com, along with 26,000 other visitors. This latest public interest portal by the StateDemocracy Foundation remained the only online tool enabling rank-and-file Democrats to lobby all 800+ Super Delegates on which candidate to back for the party’s Presidential nomination.
StateDemocracy Foundation Website Users Unite!
Many of you have used our StateDemocracy.org and LobbyDelegates.com tools in recent times, and have hopefully found your experience uplifting and empowering. I encourage all of you to help spread the news about StateDemocracy.org to enable more of our fellow citizens to Connect! Engage! And Empower!
Sincerely,
Ken Laureys, Executive Director
StateDemocracy Foundation
Ken.Laureys@StateDemocracy.org

P.S. If you are interested in becoming more involved in our StateDemocracy Foundation -- including volunteering as an Advisory Board Member -- please contact me.